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The $25 billion multistate mortgage settlement requires banks to conduct an extensive review of foreclosures against military borrowers, and could cost millions more in compensation.
February 10 -
Regions Financial is the latest banking company to offer specialized services for military personnel and veterans.
November 6 -
Wells Fargo, one of the banking companies that has settled charges of mistreating military customers, has created a new military services program and promoted Maj. Jerry Quinn to lead it.
September 26 -
Regulators issued new guidance Thursday designed to provide relief for military homeowners who must move quickly to comply with orders.
June 21 -
It takes special circumstances for one bank to foreclose on another, but such an event took place this year, leading to last month's sale of Generations Bank to National Bancorp.
May 6
Steve Calk knows what it's like for military personnel to be preyed upon.
As a young Army lieutenant stationed in California, Calk was misled into taking out an inappropriate loan, he says. Now as the chairman and chief executive of the Federal Savings Bank in Overland Park, Kan., he seeks to ensure his military customers are better protected.
"I never forgot that," Calk says. "We have been committed to making sure that doesn't happen to our customers."
Banks have been
A growing number of banks, including
Federal Savings, which has $238 million of assets, does its part by focusing on mortgages for veterans and first-time homebuyers, Calk says. Educating these borrowers is essential, he adds.
"We want them to be educated," he says. "We want them to go in with both eyes open."
"We should be grateful to these individuals for serving this country," he adds.
Besides working to educate borrowers, the bank employs veterans from various military branches and it supports organizations that provide services to military personnel and their families.
It also recently donated a house that it owned - the previous owner had abandoned it after mailing the keys to the bank - to the Metropolitan Housing Development Corp., a nonprofit that provides housing to families in urban communities. Its current occupants are a veteran's widow and the daughter of a career veteran.
Calk and his brother, John, who services as vice chairman, have spent the last few years growing Federal Savings' mortgage business after
Federal Savings recently opened five loan production offices across the country. It posted a return on assets of about 9.8% and a return on equity of 114% in 2012. Its noncurrent loans are almost nonexistent, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. data.
The "secret sauce" to this success is being "incredibly disciplined in measuring, monitoring and controlling our risk," Calk says.
"We do that by knowing our customers and ensuring all of our loans are fully documented," Calk says. "We ensure the information that we have is both truthful and accurate, and we do that by hiring and training people of superior work ethic."